THE MILLER HOUSE AND GARDEN

About Miller House and Garden

The Miller House and Garden showcases the work of leading 20th-century architects and designers Eero Saarinen, Alexander Girard, and Dan Kiley. In 2000, the Miller House became the first National Historic Landmark to receive its designation while one of its designers, Dan Kiley, was still living and while it was still occupied by its original owners. In 2011, the house became available for public tours, see below!

Take the tour!

Visit one of the most important mid-century modern residences in the country, always short-listed alongside The Glass House and The Farnsworth House. This hallmark of modern design showcases the talents of architect Eero Saarinen, designer Alexander Girard, and landscape architect Dan Kiley.

The tour is $25 and takes approximately ninety minutes, including an introductory video shown before the tour begins and transportation to and from the house. This guided tour starts at the Visitors Center, 506 Fifth Street in Columbus, and guests are shuttled by bus to the Miller House.

The guided tour is oriented to adults and children over 10 – please note only children over 10 are allowed on the tour and all guests must purchase a ticket

Private group tours are available for 10 or more by calling 1-800-468-6564 for more information.

Miller House and Garden is owned and cared for by the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Tours at Miller House and Garden are made possible through the Columbus Area Visitors Center.

Who is Eero Saarinen?

Eero Saarinen was a Finnish-American architect. His works in Columbus are Irwin Union Bank (now Irwin Conference Center), North Christian Church, and Miller House. The son of architect Eliel Saarinen, he studied with his father and came to prominence in 1948 with his competition-winning design for the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (The St. Louis Arch). He also designed interiors and furniture in the same simple, curving style as his exteriors.

From the Taschen book Saarinen, by Pierluigi Serraino:

Program, rather than scale, was the focus of Saarinen’s consciousness as a designer…his goal in designing domestic architecture remained unchanged even in later years: simplicity of the plan and interior. The Miller House…embodies just such an approach with astonishing clarity.

To complement the stark quality of Saarinen’s walls, interior designer Alexander Girard added a folk overtone to the naked surfaces. The roof overhang extends beyond the glass line to shelter a five-foot swath of open space all the way around the house. Landscape architect Dan Kiley, Eero Saarinen’s long-time collaborator, designed a natural chessboard for the site, in which the project occupies one of the squares.

Who is Dan Kiley?

Kiley and his Harvard contemporaries rejected the tenets of Beaux Arts design that then formed the core of the landscape architecture curriculum and went on to publish their own manifesto of modernism. To them, the field’s established catalogue of historical references and hierarchical spatial concepts reflected social conditions and intellectual assumptions that simply were no longer valid in twentieth-century America. Accordingly, Kiley’s garden—like Saarinen’s house—relies on a clear and strong geometric order, but without conventional symmetry, reliance on fixed points of reference, or paths of circulation that constrain the viewer’s experience. It is largely concerned with shaping spaces, composing relationships of solids and voids, and manipulating the interplay of volumes, rather than with creating specific garden views or with orchestrating complex floral combinations or bloom sequences.

The landscape’s grandest feature is an allée of honey locust trees that defines an axis along the west side of the house, extending almost to the limits of the property. With finely textured buff-colored crushed stone beneath the entire allée, the dark honey locusts stand out in sharp contrast, their lacy foliage gently filtering the sunlight. Subsequent to the allée’s construction, it received a sculptural terminus at each end: a bas relief by Jacques Lipschitz at the south and a reclining female figure by Henry Moore at the north; both were later sold at auction as part of the estate settlement.

Who is Alexandar Girard?

Eero Saarinen turned the interior design details over to Alexander Girard, who enlivened the rigorous architecture with brightly colored rugs, pillows, and wall hangings. “He made the house a home,” says Kevin Roche. “His sense of color was remarkable.” Behind the cylindrical fireplace in the living room, Girard designed storage cabinets for the Millers’ collection of antiques and art from all over the world. For seating, he sunk a fifteen-foot-square conversation pit into the floor. “The kids had overnight pajama parties in there,” recalls Irwin Miller.- from Classic Modern: Midcentury Modern at Home By Deborah Dietsch

Alexander Girard’s work imbued modern interiors with strong colors and playful patterns that brought warmth and comfort to rooms that might otherwise have seemed severe and uninviting. For the Miller House, Girard designed a wide range of interior architectural details, including a 50-foot long main storage wall and the conversation pit, as well as a seasonally changing program of textiles that enlivened the interiors. Working with Xenia Miller, he selected ornaments and antiques to personalize the house. He also designed several rugs for the house, including one composed of emblems that represent family history and associations. There are ‘Y’s for Yale (Mr. Miller’s alma-mater), representations for each child, and additional symbols of meaning to the family. Some of the chair cushions designed by Girard also feature the initials of family members. His passion for folk art is also visible in the objects chosen for the interior of the house. – from Indianapolis Museum of Art website

REVIEWS OF THE MILLER HOUSE AND GARDEN TOUR

From Travel + Leisure

Miller House ranks alongside Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House, and Philip Johnson’s Glass House as a hallmark of Modernist design (and) it is surrounded by some of the most beautiful Modernist gardens in the United States.

From New York Style

The stone- and glass-walled house (contains) meticulously preserved interiors by Alexandar Girard, who sank the world’s first conversation pit into its living room.

From Dwell

I have visited my fair share of iconic modern homes, but the moment I walked in, this one felt unique.

TRIPADVISOR REVIEWERS

San Francisco, CA

Amazing House – I had high expectations, and they were exceeded. What a fabulous, light-filled, sophisticated house! Ranks up there with the Gamble House in Pasadena in my house tour experiences – and I’d much rather live in the Miller House.

Tripadvisor reviewposted Nov 2017

Rochester, NY

This house is not as well known as Johnson’s Glass House, or Van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House, but it should be. It is fully equal in quality of design and architectural significance of those storied modern masterpieces.

Tripadvisor reviewposted August 2017

Washington, DC

An excellent, small group tour of this Mid-Century Modern landmark home and Dan Kiley designed garden. In December the Millers’ collection of creches and a Christmas tree were on display – a fun bonus. This is an interesting tour led by informative guides.

Tripadvisor reviewposted Dec 2017

Miller House and Garden is owned and cared for by the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Tours at Miller House and Garden are made possible through the Columbus Area Visitors Center.

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